FAQs

Do you work with children? In the past we worked with children, however upon moving
our offices to our home we began limiting our clientele to
adults. Our limited workspace does not allow for a play
therapy room which can be very beneficial in working with young
children. Fortunately there are excellent therapists in our
community that specialize in working with children to whom we can
refer.

Do you ever work together as a co-therapy team? Yes. We love working together as a team in couple
therapy, and as facilitators of topical presentations, workshops,
seminars, and retreats. In dealing with their relationship
issues couples have found it beneficial to work with a married
couple who are trained therapists. It can sometimes be a
scheduling challenge to get all four of us in the same office at
the same time however we will make every effort to accommodate an
expressed desire for co-therapy.

Do you work with substance abuse issues? Many of our clients have struggled with issues around a
dependency on drugs and/or alcohol. Because we are not
specifically trained (as are licensed chemical dependency
counselors) to work with those persons still active in their
dependency, we limit our work to those individuals that have at
least a full year of successful sobriety, and who continue to
actively work their program through support group meetings and
sponsors.

How many sessions of therapy will it usually take? Unfortunately, it is impossible to say. There are
just too many variables that can impact the speed and effectiveness
of therapy for any given issue to provide a specific answer.
A major part of successful therapy is tied directly to how much
work the client does on her/his own outside of the therapy
session. It is our responsibility as therapists to provide
the client with the time, the place, and the tools with which to
achieve a satisfactory resolution.

What is the difference between a marriage and family
therapist and a psychologist? The main difference between these two professions lies in
the emphasis of the perspective upon which their training is
based. A traditionally trained psychologist will focus on the
intra-personal aspects of a client whereas a marriage and
family therapist, having been trained in a more systemic,
inter-personal perspective will focus more on the
relational aspects of a client's life experiences. This
difference, however, may not be easily determined depending on the
actual perspectives and approaches of the individual
professional.

As a marriage and family therapist are you only allowed
to work with couples and families? Absolutely not. Our license as marriage and family
therapists in Texas includes working with individuals as a
recognized component of our scope of practice.

Can you prescribe medications? No. As marriage and family therapists we are not
registered medical providers and therefore cannot
prescribe medications.

Do you take insurance or Medicaid for payment? Unfortunately, no. Due, in part, to the increased
demands of health insurance companies, and in an effort to maintain
strict confidentiality of our clients' personal information, we no
longer participate as providers of mentalhealth services for any
insurance plan.

If you work with my partner and me in couple therapy
will you also work with us as individual clients? This situation is better approached on a case-by-case
basis. Our general position, however, is that this should be
avoided if at all possible. The risks lie in the rules of
confidentiality which prohibit us from sharing information from one
of the couple with the other member without written
permission. If permission is not granted it can create an
uncomfortable situation for us in which we become the keeper of a
secret from the other participant. Without permission to
share information with all participants, our preference is to refer
the clients to separate therapists for individual therapy thus
allowing us to continue serving as the couple therapist.